Jeremiah 51:51-58

Amplified Bible

⁵¹
We are perplexed and ashamed, for we have heard reproach;
Disgrace has covered our faces,
For foreigners [from Babylon] have come
Into the [most] sacred parts of the sanctuary of the Lord [even those places forbidden to all but the appointed priest].

⁵²
“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“When I will judge and punish the idols [of Babylon],
And throughout her land the mortally wounded will groan.”
⁵³
“Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens,
And though she should fortify her lofty stronghold,
Yet destroyers will come on her from Me,” says the Lord.

⁵⁴
The sound of an outcry [comes] from Babylon,
And [the sound] of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
⁵⁵
For the Lord is going to destroy Babylon and make her a ruin,
And He will still her great voice [that hums with city life].
And the waves [of her conquerors] roar like great waters,
The noise of their voices is raised up [like the marching of an army].
⁵⁶
For the destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon;
And her mighty warriors will be captured,
Their bows are shattered;
For the Lord is a God of [just] restitution;
He will fully repay.
⁵⁷
“I will make her princes and her wise men drunk,
Her governors and her commanders and her mighty warriors;
They will sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up,”
Says the King—the Lord of hosts is His name.

⁵⁸Thus says the Lord of hosts,

“The ^[a]broad wall of Babylon will be completely overthrown and the foundations razed
And her high gates will be set on fire;
The peoples will labor in vain,
And the nations become exhausted [only] for fire [that will destroy their work].”^(A)

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Footnotes

Jeremiah 51:58 Babylon was surrounded by a moat and two separate walls approximately fifty feet high. Both walls consisted of two layers. The outer layer of the outer wall was twenty-five feet thick, and the inner layer twenty-three feet thick. The outer layer of the inner defensive wall was twenty-one feet thick, and the inner layer twelve feet thick. These walls were so massive that archeologists estimate that 180 million bricks were required for their construction. Babylon’s immense ruins may still be seen—an amazing, enduring testimony to the power of God.